Julia Grahamslaw

Julia joined the Emergency Department (ED) in 2008, having started off her nursing career at the Breast unit at the Western General Hospital. Working in the ED was a dream come true; each day brought opportunities to learn something new. It was an exciting and hectic place to work, staffed by highly energetic and spirited individuals. Through the laughs and, at times, the tears, she gained a wealth of knowledge and life-saving skills, and it was with mixed feelings that she embarked upon the next stage of her career, moving to the EMERGE team in 2012.

Emergency research nursing promised a change of scene and a new focus on the academic side of medical care. However, having accepted the job, she decided she had better brush up on her research skills! She duly enrolled on a course in Clinical Research at University, and graduated with a BSc in 2013. In order to retain a balance between the science and the practice, she also completed the Clinical Decision Making module a year later a year later, which she passed with merit.

After settling in to the EMERGE team, working across a number of studies and completing a heart failure audit, Julia became lead co-ordinator for LAVAS and CVLA. After completion of these studies she was asked to present the findings at the Royal College of Nursing International Conference of Research in Nottingham in April 2015. Currently, Julia is co-ordinating a phase one Randomised Open Label Exploratory, Safety and Tolerability Clinical Trial looking at a new drug (Calmangafodipir) in combination with Acetylcysteine to see if using these two drugs together is safe and if it is better at preventing damage to the liver than using Acetylcysteine only. For more information, see the POP study on our projects page.

Out of work, she’s on a maniacal mission to become the Bionic Woman, so far, no cigar.

Trauma remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity. 10% of blunt force trauma patients admitted to a major trauma centre will have sustained one or more fractured ribs, which may cause significant pain and problems with breathing.

To establish the outcome of rib fractures and their treatments it is important to know what to measure, and how to measure this accurately. A patient reported outcome measure (PROM) is a questionnaire used to measure patient reported outcomes, to show how the patient is doing from their perspective.

Whilst there is ongoing interest in surgery to fix broken ribs, there is no PROM specifically designed for patients with broken ribs following chest trauma. Therefore, it is not clear whether the symptoms that are most important to these patients are being represented by the current outcome measures. This study aims to create a PROM specific to rib fracture patients to give us a better understanding of whether a new treatment actually makes a difference to the patient’s recovery.

The 1st part of the study involves asking patients with rib fractures to help design a new PROM. This will be conducted through focus groups at a site in Nottingham. The 2nd part of the study entails field testing, whereby patients with rib fractures will be asked to test this new PROM. This will be conducted across multiple secondary care settings in the UK, including the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. The study is expected to run for approximately 2 years, with recruitment targets of 50 patients for the PROM Creation phase and 250 for the Field Testing phase.

A performance evaluation study designed to assess the precision and accuracy of the Lumira DX point of care (POC) and C-Reactive (CRP) assay as an aid in the detection and evaluation of infection, tissue injury and inflammatory disorders.

In the emergency department (ED), CRP is tested in patients presenting with a variety of symptoms as an aid the detection and evaluation of infection, tissue injury or inflammatory disorders.

Primary objective - To determine the performance of the LumiraDx POC CRP assay when compared to the Siemens Dimension reference method in patients with symptoms of infection, tissue injury and inflammatory disorders.

Sample size - 50 participants over a duration of approximately 4 weeks.

Prospective multicentre observational study conducted over one calendar month in 2019, with the aim of describing the epidemiology of non-trauma related headache in adults presenting to emergency departments including investigations, treatments and outcome.

This will include adult patients presenting to the ED with non-trauma-related headache as their primary complaint.

A Performance Evaluation of The Lumiradx Point of Care D Dimer Assay AS AN Aid in the Diagnosis and Assessment of VTE (EMBOL1)

To determine the association between high-sensitivity cardiac troponin concentration and obstructive coronary artery disease in patients presenting to the Emergency Department with suspected acute coronary syndrome and cardiac troponin concentration within the normal reference range using CTCA.

To determine the association between high-sensitivity cardiac troponin concentration and obstructive coronary artery disease in patients presenting to the Emergency Department with suspected acute coronary syndrome and cardiac troponin concentration within the normal reference range using CTCA.

EHA - Epidemiological analysis for the Hereditary Angioedema Disease is an international, multicentre, epidemiological study that aims to explore the feasibility of a new Dried Blood Spot (DBS) filtercard-based screening algorithm and thereby the prevalence of the Hereditary Angioedema.

Diagnostics devices play an important part in the clinical assessment of a patient’s health and treatment. The purpose of the study is the evaluation of a new diagnostic platform developed by LumiraDx. The evaluation is focused around various biomarkers useful in the emergency settings.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disabilities amongst young people worldwide. Many sufferers develop chronic physical and mental health problems and are unable to work or re-engage socially after their injuries. There are therefore significant health and socioeconomic consequences.

A study examining the Prevalence and Risk of Anterior Pituitary Dysfunction following Traumatic Brain Injury

In the Liver Unit at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, we are involved in research to improve the treatment available for people with liver cirrhosis. Cirrhosis of the liver can make people vulnerable to other potentially serious complications including kidney problems.

The study with PP100-01 in combination with NAC is designed to determine safety and tolerability of PP100-01 when co-administered with NAC as compared to the 12-hr NAC treatment regime for patients that come to the hospital after an overdose of paracetamol/acetaminophen.

This is a study looking at incidence and risk factors for poor ankle functional recovery, and the development and progression of post-traumatic ankle osteoarthritis after significant ankle ligament injury.

This trial is a two arm, multicentre parallel group, randomised controlled, open label trial comparing intravenous levetiracetam to intravenous phenytoin for the treatment of convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) in children, young people and young adults.